by Darrell Waltrip

Around the track

Follow the action:

• Michigan schedule
• Michigan practices

Watch:

• Video Central

Picture perfect:

• Action at Watkins Glen

Read all about it:

• Dale Jr: Changes needed in NASCAR
• Vickers edges Martin for Cup pole

Analysis:

• White: Chasers feel the heat
• Spencer: Drivers to watch at Michigan

But what if I come up with a better mousetrap than the other guy? That's been the way NASCAR racing has been for 60 years. Think back to when Chrysler came with the Hemi. They had an advantage. What about the famous Chevrolet 427 Mystery Engine that Junior Johnson had?

In the early '80s when I drove for Junior we had the Buicks. We had the best people in the sport at the time and we were making the most horsepower of anyone. We were doing it all within the rules. In the 28 races we had that year either our qualifying or race motor was torn down something like 20 times. It wasn't because NASCAR thought we were doing something illegal, it was because the competition was always complaining that we were winning too much or doing something illegal. We weren't. We were just better than everyone at the time. In fact, we were fortunate to be that strong both in '81 and '82.

Look at Bill Elliott in 1985. He was bad fast every race. He was so much faster than everyone that we couldn't even stay on the same lap as him sometimes. I remember it well. Bill was in a Ford and I was in a Chevrolet. We were complaining all the time about Bill's motors. We weren't even looking at the body of the car, where the real advantage was. All of us were convinced that Ernie Elliott had come up with something being overlooked by NASCAR. We were all up in arms that NASCAR wasn't doing their job in inspecting Bill's car.

So I have lived this nightmare before. I have been in situations before where sometimes you just have a leg up on everybody. That's what racing is all about. You work hard. You find advantages. You hire the best people and you maximize and improve what you have to work with.

So when I look at rules, I can only look at them as a former driver and owner. When NASCAR says there is something wrong with my car, for example the No. 66 and the No. 70 having illegal braces in the trunk, they didn't just take the illegal parts, they took the whole car and they kept them. Now I haven't quite figured that out.

A couple weeks ago they went in and took 10 different engines from the cars. They took them back to the NASCAR R&D facility and ran them on their dynos. They look at what you have for horsepower and what parts and pieces you are using. It just seems like every week it is something. Last week at St. Louis, Carl Edwards has illegal brake calipers. Instead of a warning to never bring it back, they just take it. You no longer have the option of not bringing it back. You now have the option of not getting it back.

Again, I just haven't quite figured that out. If NASCAR took my car because of some part that was illegal on the car and didn't give me back my race car, well I would be furious. I guess maybe I am a too much "old school" because I just can't come to grips with that kind of logic.

When you work as hard as you can and you come up with something that is better than what everyone else has and it is within in the rules, well it just blows my mind that the competitors can get NASCAR to put a stop to it. It's like they are telling NASCAR that they don't want to work that hard and that their people aren't that smart, so NASCAR has to do something for them.

Let's go back to my '85 story about Bill Elliott. I complained to high heaven about Bill's motor. You know what NASCAR told me -- "DW, if you think that Ford is so much better, why don't you build yourself one?"

You cannot penalize a whole group simply because they are better than everyone else. You don't drag the top down, you bring the bottom up. But in the case of this Toyota ruling, I just don't get it. Chevrolet has a new engine that's equal to Toyota for the Nationwide series, but NASCAR won't let them run it. Don't ask me why because I don't know. It seems like that would be a quick fix at least for one of the manufacturers.

The thing that annoys me is when one manufacturer is winning all the races, well that is one thing. When one TEAM is winning all the races with a particular manufacturer that tells you that team knows something that everyone else doesn't. You know, the last time I checked, the only Toyotas that have been ultra-successful this year have been the Gibbs cars. I made this point a couple weeks ago, if you look back to last year, Gibbs could have had just as many wins in their Chevrolets last year if they could have had the luck they are having this year.

I have seen rule changes made to a manufacturer in the aero department but I have never seen it where one team's going to have one size restrictor plate while the other teams have a different size. That is just beyond comprehension to me.

So all I can say is this old-school guy is trying to figure out how to survive in this new-school world because this math just doesn't add up to me.